University of Chicago Library Guide to the Robert Redfield Papers 1917-1958 © 2010 University of Chicago Library Table of Contents Descriptive Summary 3 Information on Use 3 Access 3 Citation 3 Biographical Note 3 Scope Note 6 Related Resources 14 Subject Headings 14 INVENTORY 15 Series I: Personal Correspondence 15 Series II: General Files 16 Series III: Middle American Field Materials 60 Subseries 1: Tepoztlan 60 Subseries 2: Yucatan 60 Sub-subseries 1: Chan Kom 60 Sub-subseries 2: Dzitas 64 Sub-subseries 3: Merida 65 Sub-subseries 4: Quintana Roo 66 Sub-subseries 5: General Yucatan 69 Subseries 3: Guatemala 69 Subseries 4: Chiapas 71 Subseries 5: Photographs 71 Subseries 6: General Notes 71 Subseries 7: Mexicans in Chicago 74 Series IV: Redfield Publications 75 Subseries 1: Books, Articles and Speeches 75 Subseries 2: Introductions, Reviews and Miscellaneous Notes 87 Series V: Teaching Materials 88 Series VI: Student Papers 96 Series VII: Bibliographic Cards, Notes and Oversized Charts 109 Series VIII: Addenda 109 Subseries 1: Personal Correspondence 109 Subseries 2: Biographical 111 Subseries 3: Lectures and Writings 113 Series IX: Photographs 115 Series X: Oversize 115 Descriptive Summary Identifier ICU.SPCL.REDFIELDR Title Redfield, Robert. Papers Date 1917-1958 Size 51.5 linear feet (95 boxes) Repository Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A. Abstract Professor, anthropologist. The Redfield Papers span the years of Robert Redfield's association with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, from the mid-1920s when he began graduate work in anthropology to the end of his professional career in 1958. Information on Use Access The collection is open for research. Citation When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Redfield, Robert. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library Biographical Note Most of Robert Redfield's life and distinguished career were closely linked to the University of Chicago. He had graduated from the University's Laboratory School and its College, and had received the JD degree before beginning graduate work in anthropology with Fay-Cooper Cole and Edward Sapir in 1924. Upon the completion of his PhD in 1928 he was made an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and from that date until his death in 1958 he was an active member of the faculty of the Anthropology Department. Promotions came quickly for him: by 1934 he was a full professor and in the same year was made Dean of the Division of Social Sciences: after giving up the Deanship in 1946, he served as chairman of the Department of Anthropology from 1947 to 1949. When Redfield began his graduate work in anthropology, anthropology was taught in a department combined with sociology, thus giving him the full benefit of training in both fields. Faye-Cooper Cole and Edward Sapir guided much of his graduate training: in the field of sociology, the most influential member of the faculty, Robert E. Park, was the man who had first 3 encouraged Redfield to pursue anthropological studies and whose work was to have an important effect on Redfield's conception of the nature of the social sciences. As a reflection of his student years, a few of Redfield's own student term papers are found in the section of "Student Papers: and in the "Personal Correspondence" can be found a record of his archaeological experiences in Bainbridge, Ohio, in the summer of 1925. Other than these, the collection contains very little record of his graduate training before beginning fieldwork in Middle America. Redfield married Margaret Park, Robert Park's daughter, in 1920 and, because of her training in anthropology and sociology and her strong natural interest in people, Mrs. Redfield was always an active and important participant in fieldwork. In 1926, the Redfields began their first fieldwork in the small village of Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico. The eight months spent in Tepoztlan was the more difficult because the Redfields needed to keep their children safe during several incidents of Mexican civil unrest. A few field notes are found in the "Middle America Field Materials," but more extensive documentation of these months exists in the correspondence between Redfield and family members in Chicago, and his correspondence with Mrs. Redfield while she was temporarily in Tacubaya, Mexico. From the work in Tepoztlan Redfield wrote his PhD dissertation, which was later, published as Tepoztlan: Life in a Mexican Village (1930). The body of the dissertation was published virtually unchanged, but with a new introduction. The original introduction to the dissertation is also very interesting: it can be consulted with the copy of the dissertation found in the general collection of the University of Chicago Library. In 1930, Redfield began his association with the Carnegie Institution of Washington and its work in Yucatan. Initially, Redfield went to Yucatan to propose a cultural survey of the peninsula but soon after his arrival, a meeting was held at the headquarters in Chichen Itza and it was decided not to pursue a survey of contemporary cultures. Archeology was the first and biggest interest of the CIW in Yucatan and from this had sprung a very strong historical- reconstructionist approach to the study of modern cultures. Redfield made it clear he would not engage in this type of study (which he considered a search for survivals), but would go ahead, nonetheless, and draft a proposal for a different kind of study. Alfred Kidder, who was then associated with the CIW and who had attended the meeting in Chichen Itza, took an interest in Redfield's approach to the study of contemporary cultures and, after the proposal was submitted, advocated its implementation. The project, as outlined by Redfield, was undertaken and was destined to be both large and important. The preliminary events surrounding the cultural survey of Yucatan are documented by Redfield's correspondence to his wife (see the "Personal Correspondence"), and by the project proposals and their drafts found in the "General Files" under Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 1931, the Redfields began their fieldwork in Yucatan. Chan Kom had been chosen as one of four communities to be studied and Alfonso Villa-Rojas, then a young schoolteacher, had already begun working in the village under Redfield's supervision. The Redfields joined him there for 4 further work. These labors resulted in Chan Kom: A Maya Village (1934), jointly authored by Redfield and Villa, and was the first of the Yucatan community studies to be published. During the years of work in Yucatan other communities were studied: Asael Hansen undertook intensive work in the capitol city of Merida, Villa studied several villages in Quintana Roo, and Redfield studied the town of Dzitas. The entire project was done under Redfield's direction and as a result there are in the collection extensive field notes, field diaries, and correspondence relating to all this work. Redfield was responsible for the supervision of similar work, also sponsored by the CIW, being done in the neighboring highlands of Guatemala by Sol Tax. In the spring of 1935, Redfield made an exploratory trip to Guatemala with a brief stopover in Yucatan. This trip is described in Redfield's letters to his family but the expected arrival of the Redfield's fourth child was the uppermost concern in his mind (he returned to Chicago just a few hours before the birth of his son James). During this trip, however, arrangements were begun for the Redfields to take up fieldwork in Agua Escondida, Guatemala. In the spring of 1937, and from October to February of 1938-1939 the Redfields were working in Agua Escondida. At the time of the 1938-1939 trip Redfield was finishing The Folk Culture of Yucatan (1941) which synthesized all of the work which had been done in Yucatan in the 1930s and which included part of the results from Sol Tax's work in Guatemala. It was an enormous task, which reflected Redfield's ability to extract general trends from a morass of data. All of the work done in Guatemala is substantiated by a large number of diaries, ethnographic field notes, and correspondence between Tax and Redfield. Also present are Benjamin and Lois Paul's notes from work done in Guatemala under the supervision of the University of Chicago Department of Anthropology. In the late 1940s, Redfield's interest began to turn away from “the folk” and centered on “civilization.” Late in 1948 the Redfields set out for China where he was to teach at National Tsinghua University, Peiping. After a brief stay in Peiping the Redfields were forced to go to Lingnan University, Canton, and soon after that to leave the country in the face of the advancing Communist Army. The Redfields returned from China by way of Europe where Redfield delivered a series of lectures in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1949. The "Personal Correspondence" contains documentation of the China-Europe trip: related correspondence can be found in the "General Files" under Helen and Everett Hughes. The Frankfurt Lectures themselves are found in the section of "Redfield Publications." Photographs are the only material present from the brief stay in China and India. Scattered documents throughout the collection, however, clearly reveal his increasing interest in the study of comparative civilization. From the beginning of this career Redfield had also been involved in a large number of national and international activities and had been active as a private citizen in many social causes. He 5 was president of the American Anthropological Association (1944): was a member of the Commission on the Freedom of the Press: was a director of the American Council on Race Relations: a member of the Committee to Frame a World Constitution: and had been an advisor for the War Relocation Authority during the war years.